rooster51's Blog

With the country screaming "depression, teenage suicide, low test scores, larger classrooms.. cutting or shortening the current summer vacation schedule would be the worst thing to do to students who are extremely stressed as they grow up in this culture. Families need time to be together as a family unit.  If we want to look at test scores, of course European countries score higher than we do because they do not test everyone as we do..they only test the cream of the crop..those slated for higher education. What do test scores actually show?  Depending on how you want to use the data generated from test scores..they can show a lot of skewed results..the user just needs to know how to manipulate the numbers. In the end, what really matters in life?  It's how we treat people...that's all they remember.. not the number of toys we have purchased or the size house we owned..but how we treated them. Without a  decent summer break..kids will become more antagonistic in the classroom, discipline problems will increase, and the population will see more teacher burnout.  Education is not dealing with nuts and bolts or hammer and nails.. this is a human product that is being nurtured.. We make critical mistakes when we force children to grow up too soon..time must be spent on the ballfields, in the parks, in recreational activities that let kids develop interpersonal skills..What about summer jobs for the young adults who need to learn the worksplaces?  What about the mentoring opportunities that would be lost..What about the interaction iwth neighbors..I have seen year round schools and parents are unable to scheule anything because if they have 3 children. those kids are many time on three separate schedules...Families are the most important unit we have in this country..Besides... where would the money come to operate all year... We can barely afford what we presently have...I advocate changing the total schedule... go to a four day week...hire highly qualified teachers.. adjust the schedules so that night classes would be available for kids who want to work during the school year but continue their education.. revamp the system as we currently know it is the only way to change low test scores...we need to test fairly, on fairly construted tests that actually measure ability.  25 years ago academics were demanding...because teachers taught material that allowed individuals to be life long learners.. now they teach to a test...but have little time for class discussions, fieldtrips, night programs for families to visit the schools.. We've become too busy...and unfocused...we need to nuture talent, so that we continue to allow students to creatively grow as productive members of society...only through time out of the classrooms will this be possible...kids learn by interacting in their world and being exposed to "things" that we can't find in the textbooks..summer and springs breaks allow this to happen..Ciao